I haven't read the other precursor emails in the thread (but it doesn't make any difference if I am to relate my personal experience). I was a SWR2500 fan for the first two years in business 2002-2004. I am a loyal customer as long as the quality, price, availability and tech support stayed true. I got pretty upset when SMA upped their prices in response to capturing the US market. The GT line looked great, with a more manageable form factor and better pricing. So I switched horses. My initial experience with the GTs was fine. As an aside, I had a horrible time with my first two XW, in every way imaginable. So the GTs seemed to be solid citizens until the Chinese manufacturing debacle set in. I think I will end up replacing 100% of the GTs we installed over that 9 month (?) period -- I'm thinking 15 total. Another GT failed two weeks ago. The customer relayed the LCD display readout to us (Inverter Offline), the date of mfgr (Feb. 24, 2006) the FGA (8640002) and the S/N (1098-6063). All fit the MO exactly. Schneider Tech Support (which is who we are dealing with, to be precise) still insisted on having us roll a truck to make DC and AC voltage measurements before processing the warranty claim. Very poor move on their part. They know the GT unit in question was going to fail and it has - ship us a replacement, dummies. The difference between one and two truck rolls is covering our costs and not. I haven't had replacement units fail, though. I wonder why. In addition, they are taking something close to eight weeks to cut checks; eight weeks after getting the defective unit back. So Xantrex is on my "Do Not Buy" list, not for any of their inverters or any thing else I might think of. For the duration. - Peter
Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D., President California Solar Engineering, Inc. 820 Cynthia Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065 CA Lic. 854779, NABCEP Cert. 031806-26 <mailto:peter.parr...@calsolareng.com> peter.parr...@calsolareng.com Ph 323-258-8883, Mobile 323-839-6108, Fax 323-258-8885 _____ From: re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Nick Soleil Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 4:55 PM To: RE-wrenches Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] GT 3.0 FAILURES Yes, I have commonly found issues with the GT series. I have installed hundreds of Xantrex inverters through the BP/Home Depot solar program. Unfortunately, I have replaced 4 in the last 2 weeks. With so many in the field, I am forced to spend a large amount of time troubleshooting and replacing GTs. On the other hand, I have also replaced 1 SB-6000U (almost out of warranty) in the same time frame and have recently seen SMA inverters failing out of warranty. All in all, the Xantrex perform less reliably, but are much easier to handle and replace, and the technical support is good. In my experience, it is not a big difference. I trust the newer GTs more. Most of my 3.0's have been upgraded by Xantrex to 3.3s, upon failure. Nick Soleil Project Manager Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions, LLC PO Box 657 Petaluma, CA 94953 Cell: 707-321-2937 Office: 707-789-9537 Fax: 707-769-9037 _____ From: Marco Mangelsdorf <ma...@pvthawaii.com> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> Sent: Mon, June 7, 2010 11:36:18 AM Subject: [RE-wrenches] GT 3.0 FAILURES In my experience as well the Xantrex GT line of inverters has been fraught with failures with one site having three failed buggers until I had had enough and switched to a comparable SMA product. marco I am replacing some GT 3.0 multiple times. Though Xantrex pays the labor, this is still a crummy deal. My customers really loose confidence the 2nd and 3rd time , Bad for industry and my company. Question, how many other installers are experiencing multiple failures with the GT series. I have a bad feeling that they are not addressing the engineering problems and just replacing parts and shipping the same old problem back to the field. Don Offline Solar
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